1. Technical Field
The present disclosure generally relates to the field of analog-to-digital converters and, more particularly, to a successive-approximation analog-to-digital converter.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is known that an analog-to-digital converter is a device for converting an analog signal into a digital signal represented by a determined number of bits. Specifically, it is known the successive-approximation analog-to-digital converter, wherein the bits of the digital signal are successively determined one by one, typically from the most significant bit to the least significant bit.
Failures or performance degradation of the components of the analog-to-digital converter can occur. A successive-approximation analog-to-digital converter generally includes a first plurality of capacitors to convert a digital signal into an analog signal and a second plurality of capacitors to perform a self-calibration for compensating variations of capacitance values of the first plurality of capacitors, thus improving the accuracy of the analog-to-digital converter.
There are known techniques for performing the test of the operation of the analog-to-digital converter by using circuits outside the analog-to-digital converter, which thus have the disadvantage of requiring a dedicated circuit for performing the test.
Therefore it is necessary to guarantee a correct operation of the analog-to-digital converter, especially in applications that require high safety and reliability, such as for example in the automotive field.